In my junior year of college, I realized that I didn't have the grades or test scores to get into medical school, at least not as an Indian-American. Still, I was determined to become a doctor and I knew that admission standards for certain minorities under affirmative action were, let's say… less stringent?

So, Chokal-Ingam went to great lengths to make it seems as if he was African American.

He wrote,

So, I shaved my head, trimmed my long Indian eyelashes, and applied to medical school as a black man. My change in appearance was so startling that my own fraternity brothers didn't recognize me at first. I even joined the Organization of Black Students and started using my embarrassing middle name that I had hidden from all of my friends since I was a 9 years old.

Almost Black

Vijay then went by Jojo, and for most intents and purposes, he passed as black.

Almost Black

He wrote,

Cops harassed me. Store clerks accused me of shoplifting. Women were either scared of me or couldn't keep their hands off me. What started as a devious ploy to gain admission to medical school turned into twisted social experiment.

Ultimately, Chokal-Ingam was accepted into med school at Saint Louis University.

He attended for a couple of years before dropping out.

He realized he no longer wanted to be a doctor, but the fact he got in under such false pretenses is pretty incredible and perhaps more than a little immoral.

He said his sister, Mindy Kaling, believes "this book will bring shame" to their family.